I heard the 4cx800s are available again but at twice the price they
used to sell for. I think the 3cx800 is a better tube--the typical
amp design with the triode seems to produce a slightly cleaner output.
Of course it's an expensive tube but treat it right and it will last.
There are plenty of perfectly good amps for sale these days; they just
aren't being made by Ten Tec. Why not give one a try? I like the
efficiency, reliability and ease of use of solid state PAs (most of us
have sure gotten used to solid state exciters haven't we) but another
problem with them is that they can be easily over driven to produce
wide band noise and garbage ten or twenty KHz up and down from a tx
frequency. The cost savings in the lower light bill plus much
greater MTBF make paying the high price of expensive protective
circuitry and filtering a no-brainer in solid state commercial service
because eventually they pay for themselves, but for hams up-front cost
is king and for now, tubes still rule. But have you checked new amp
prices lately? the Command HF-2500 is up around $4300, and that's a
pretty basic no-frills amp. If this kind of pricing gets much
higher, the cost of a basic tube American legal limit amp is going to
start nudging solid state which can benefit from being able to run on
less expensive switching supplies.
If you have to have a Ten Tec amp, what's wrong with the Centurion?
Fairly cheap tubes and very available. Oh, it's 1.2 kw but so what.
Of course like other amps, it isn't the bargain it once was and you
may have to replace the subpar stock B+ transformer but hey, still
made right there in Sevierville.
73,
Rob / k5uj
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